
LIBRARY OF C^GRESS, 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 














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A MANUAL 

FOR THE 

GUIDANCE OF VOTERS 

IN THE 

GENERAL STATE ELECTION 


TO BE 


Seld in New York City^ Noth 7, 1S71» 




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COMPILED BY HENRY D. LLOYD. 

// 

Of the Young Men’s Municipal Reform Association. 


I. 

Who has the Eight to Vote?— Every male citi¬ 
zen of the United States ’who shall have been a citizen 
for ten days, ’who shall have been, immediately pre¬ 
ceding the election, an inhabitant of the State for 
one year, of the county for four months, of the dis¬ 
trict from which the officer is to be chosen for whom 
he offers his vote, thirty days. 

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How TO Secure the Eight. —The law requires 
each voter before election day to register his name 
and address in the presence of the inspectors of elec 
tion. 

When and Where to Eegister. —The inspectors 
of elections meet on the Tuesday three weeks before 
the election, at 9 o’clock A.M., and on the Wednesday, 
Friday and Saturday preceding the election, from 9 
A.M. till 10 P.M. The inspectors meet for registra¬ 
tion in the place designated for the election by procla¬ 
mation of the Mayor, who is forbidden by law to name 
a place where intoxicating liquors are sold. 

What Legal Voters May Do who Unavoidably 
Fail to Eegister.— Any legal voter who may have fail¬ 
ed to register will still be allowed to vote, upon giving, 
under oath, an excuse therefor which shall be satisfac¬ 
tory to a majority of the inspectors. 

Who have a Eight to be Present at the Eegistry. 
—All citizens have a right to be present at the registra¬ 
tion of voters, subject to the necessity of allowing ac¬ 
cess to those who desire to register, and all pei’sons re¬ 
siding, and entitled to vote in the district shall be 
entitled to be heard in relation to corrections or addi¬ 
tions to the Eegister. 

How Citizens May (tain Access to the Eegister.— 
When the register has been completed, the inspector 


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must tile one certified copy with the County Clerk and 
another in the Bureau of Elections, and the registers 
shall at all times be open to public inspection at these 
offices without charge. The best and most practical 
way to supervise the register would be the attendance 
throughout each day of the registration of one or more 
citizens with an accurate list in their possession of the 
actual voters in their election district. Any attempt 
at illegal registration could thus be detected and siun- 
marily checked. 

III. 

Where to Vote. —Each voter must vote in the 
election district in which he actually ” resides, and 
at the place designated by proclamation of the Mayor. 
Full information about the boundaries of election dis¬ 
tricts and the places of election will be supplied to the 
public by the Committee of Seventy and by the Young 
Men’s Municipal Beform Association. The head¬ 
quarters of both associations are at No. 39 Union 
Square. The polls are open on the day of election 
from 6 A.M. to 5 P.M. For any person to interfere 
improperly with any voter on his way to the polls, or 
while attempting to vote, is a misdemeanor, punish¬ 
able by a fine of $500 and one year’s imprisonment. 

IV. 

What Officials Attend the Polls. —1. The in- 
8})ectors of elections ; 2. The poll clerks; 3. Police¬ 
men. 


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The Duties of Inspectors. —Inspectors of election 
are to receive and deposit the ballots of legal voters; 
to exact a satisfactory excuse, under oath, from any 
non-registered voter; to challenge and examine, un¬ 
der oath, every person offering to vote “ whom they 
shall know or suspect not to be duly qualified as an 
elector,” or who shall be challenged by any legal vo¬ 
ter, and at the closing of the polls to canvass the votes. 
No one shall act as an inspector in any district in 
which he is a candidate for any office except inspector* 
The inspectors have full authority to maintain order 
around the polls, and to cause the arrest and deten¬ 
tion of disorderly persons, who shall not, however, 
be thereby prevented from voting. 

The Duties of Poll Clerks. —Poll clerks record 
the name and address of each voter as he deposits his 
ballot, and perform other clerical duties, under the 
direction of the inspectors. 

The Duties of Policemen. —Beside the preserva¬ 
tion of order, it is by law made the duty of policemen 
to protect challengers, and to secure for those deputed 
by candidates to watch the canvass access thereto. 

V. 

What Citizens Have a Right to Attend the 
Polls Throughout the Election. —Subject to the 
necessity of keeping the polls open to voters, all citi¬ 
zens have a right to be present throughout the elec- 


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tion ; but special provision is made by the law for the 
presence at the polls, and protection by the police, of 
one citizen chosen by each political party to act as 
challenger. For any person to interfere improperly 
with such a challenger is a misdemeanor. Any citi¬ 
zen may challenge the vote of any person whom he 
may know or suspect not to be duly qualified as a 
voter, and the voter thus challenged shall be exam¬ 
ined under oath by the inspectors. 

Who May be Challengers. —Any legal voter in 
the city of I^ew York may challenge voters at any 
election district in the city. 

VL 

How THE Canvass of the Yotes is to be Con¬ 
ducted. —The polls shall be closed at 5 o’clock P.M., 
in the presence of the citizens, “ and the inspectors 
shall immediately, without any adjournment or recess, 
and at the place of the poll, publicly proceed to can¬ 
vass and estimate the votes.” The canvass shall com¬ 
mence by a comparison of the poll-lists with each other 
from the commencement, and a correction of any mis¬ 
takes that may be found therein. The boxes will be 
opened, and the votes canvassed in the following or¬ 
der : 

1st box. No, 2—General State ticket, consisting of 
one Justice of the Supreme Court, two Justices of the 
Superior Court, one Justice of the Court of Common 


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Pleas, and one Justice of the Marine Court. 2d box, 
No. 4—Senate. 3dbox, No. 5—Assembly. 4th box, 
No, 9—Inspectors of Election. 

The Ballots First to be Counted Unopened.— 
The ballots in each box shall first be counted, unopened, 
except so far as to ascertain that each ballot is single. 
If several ballots are found folded together, they shall 
all be destroyed, if the number of ballots exceed tbe 
number of votes ; otherwise not. 

In Case the Number of Ballots in any Box Ex¬ 
ceed THE Number of Yoters. —All the ballots shall 
be replaced in the box, and one of the canvassers, with¬ 
out seeing them, shall publicly draw out and destroy 
so many ballots as shall be equal to such excess. 

The Order of the Canvass. —The ballot-boxes 
shall be opened and canvassed in the order prescribed 
by law (see above), and the inspectors shall complete 
the estimate of the votes in each box, make proclama¬ 
tion of the result, and complete the returns and certi¬ 
ficates before proceeding to the canvass of the next box. 

Oral Public Proclamation shall be made by the 
chairman of the inspectors at the completion of the 
canvass of each box of the whole n"umber of votes in 
the box, of the whole number given to each person, 
and of the office for which he was named. This pub¬ 
lic announcement of results shall be pHma-facie evi¬ 
dence thereof. 


How THE Canvass is to be Completed.— The state¬ 
ment of the results of the canvass shall be made and 
subscribed in public, without adjournment or recess, 
at the place of election and canvass, and shall be then 
and there forthwith enclosed in a strong wrapper, and 
shall be sealed and countersigned across the seal by 
the inspectoi’s of elections. One copy of these returns 
is to be filed in the Bureau of Elections, another in 
the County Clerk’s office ; the others are to be kept by 
the inspectors, unopened, until produced before the 
Board of County Canvassers. 

• YIL 

What Persons Have a Bight to be Present 
Throughout the Canvass. —The canvass must be open 
and public. Every citizen has a right to be present. 
But it is specially provided that each candidate for 
office shall have the right to designate one person in 
each election district to watch the canvass of the votes. 
Policemen are enjoined to make a passage for him to 
the inspectors, who shall allow him to stand near 
enough to see every vote correctly counted. The in¬ 
spectors have no power to cause his removal, unless 
he has himself been guilty of fraudulent or disorderly 
conduct. 


YIIl. 

How Frauds may be Committed. —1. By false reg¬ 
istering. 2. By repeaters, who may appear under the 


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iianies of legal voters, duly registered; under false 
names, duly registered; or as non-registered voters 
unavoidably prevented from registering. 3. By dis¬ 
honest inspectors, who may dexterously change the 
ballots in the act of depositing them in the ballot-box ; 
who may make a false count of the votes, or may alter 
the statement of the result after it has been announced, 
closed and sealed. The commission of any such fraud 
is felony. 

IX. 

How Citizens May Prevent These Frauds.— 
To prevent false registering, the citizens of each 
election district should make a thorough canvass of 
the voters therein previous to the registry ; and at 
every day of registry one or more of them should at¬ 
tend for the purpose of detecting attempts at false reg¬ 
istration. The law requires inspectors to refuse to 
register or to erase from the register the name of any 
pei’son found to be not entitled to vote. 2. To pun¬ 
ish false registering—see under 4. 3. To prevent 

repeating, citizens may, and inspectors shall, chal¬ 
lenge the vote of any person whom they may suspect 
or know to not be qualified to vote; and he shall 
be thereupon interrogated under oath concerning his 
name, place, and time of residence, and asked all such 
other questions as may tend to test his qualification 
to vote. 4. To punish repeating and false registry. 
Illegal voting, and illegal registry, or any participation 
therein, are each felony. Every citizen who discovers 


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any false registry or voting should forthwith proceed 
to the nearest and best magistrate—one known to be 
in sympathy with the reform movement—and prefer a 
complaint therefor against the offender, by the name 
under which he registered or voted, whether it be 
true or fictitious. The magistrate will thereupon 
issue a warrant, upon which the officers of the court 
will arrest the accused. He will be held to bail, or 
committed in default of it. Information of the case 
will then be sent by the magistrate to the District-At¬ 
torney, who will bring the case before the Grand Jury. 
In case of conviction, the penalty is imprisonment in 
the State Prison, not less than one nor more than 
three years. It is especially desirable that the above 
steps be taken during the registration and before the 
day of election, for knowledge of the fact that war¬ 
rants have been issued against them will prevent 
many repeaters from showing themselves at the polls. 
5. Dishonest Inspectors—There is no legal summary 
proceeding to check an inspector guilty of fraudulent 
connivance with repeaters, of changing ballots, of 
false counting, or of altering returns. The Mayoj- 
has the power of changing the inspectors, however, at 
any moment, before or during the election. Should 
representations properly made to him fail to cause 
the removal of the dishonest inspector, no other legal 
redress remains than to gather evidence, under affida¬ 
vits, of his fraud. Such official misconduct is felony, 
punishable by from one to five yearn’ imprisonment in 


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the State Prison. The steps necessary to secure con¬ 
viction are the same prescribed above in the case of 
repeating. 

An Important Preventive Measure. —By virtue 
of the provision of the law, candidates, in pursuance of 
their legal rights, may designate as their represent¬ 
atives at the canvass men of such high ability and 
character as to deter dishonest inspectors from the 
commission of fraud in the count or public state¬ 
ment. 

How to Check Fraudulent Alteration of I^e- 
turns of the Canvass. —Instances have been known in 
which dishonest inspectors have reversed the result of 
an election by secretly changing the official returns 
after the completion of the canvass. In wards where 
the foregoing right has been exercised, a check may 
be thus given to this practice : The law declares (Laws 
1870, chap. 188, sec. 16), that at the close of the can¬ 
vass of each box, the inspectors shall make oral public 
proclamation of the result; and this due public an- 
nov.ncement by the inspectors of any result shall be prima 
facie evidence thereof. W illfiil neglect on the part of the 
chairman of the board of inspectors to make such oral 
and public statement is a felony. Let the representa¬ 
tives of the various candidates, then, as explained 
above, as each result is announced, make entry there¬ 
of. At the close of the canvass, let them at once re¬ 
port the result for publication to the Associated Press, 


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No. 149 Broadway, and also in order that they may 
be conclusive evidence, take affidavit that such and 
such was the return duly and publicly announced by 
the Inspectors of Elections. Such immediate and ex¬ 
tensive publicity would render hopeless any syste¬ 
matic alteration of returns. 

X. 

Penalties for Individual Frauds. —Any person 
who shall commit, solicit, or procure illegal registry or 
illegal voting is guilty of felony, punishable by impris¬ 
onment in the State Prison not less than one and not 
more than three years. For any person to interfere 
improperly with any voter on his way to the poll, or 
while attempting to vote, is a misdemeanor punishable 
by a tine of $500 and one year’s imprisonment. Any 
person who offers a bribe to influence an elector in 
giving his vote, or to deter him from giving it, shall 
be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by fine not to 
exceed $500, or imprisonment not to exceed one year. 

XI. 

Penalties for Official Frauds. —Misconduct ol 
any offic'al stationed at the polls is felony; and it is 
felony for any inspector knowingly to permit any 
fraudulent registry or voting. These felonies shall be 
punishable by imprisonment in the State Prison for 
not less than one nor more than five years. For any 
official to make a fraudulent count or statement, or a 


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fraudulent omission thereof, and for any person to in¬ 
cite any official so to do, and for any person to make 
any fraudulent change of statement of votes, shall be 
felony, punishable by imprisonment in the State Pris¬ 
on not less than two nor more than five years. It is 
the especial duty of the District Attorney to prosecute 
tor violations of the Election laws, and, upon convic¬ 
tion, the law forbids any suspension of sentence or 
judgment. 


ATHERTON & COLES, Printkbs and STATioNBue. 
16 Maiden Lane. N. Y. 




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